Page 206 of As The Shifter World Turns

“I just need to pack. Want me to meet at your place?”

“We’ll swing by and get you in thirty minutes.”

Toby could hardly contain himself on the walk home and during the packing. By the time we picked Neil up, Toby had every last second of the weekend planned. Of course he failed to take into consideration how much was already scheduled for him.

We drove a couple of hours to the host city and found our hotel with ease. The place was packed. Beyond packed, and kids were running everywhere. It was going to be one ofthoseweekends.

“Sorry,” I mumbled to Neil.

“Don’t be. It reminds me of some good times as a kid.”

It took ten minutes for us to get our turn at check in and we were met with an, “I’m sorry. There was a mistake in the block booking and we don’t have any rooms left,” she said once I gave her my name.

“Do you have any suggestions for nearby hotels?” I wasn’t totally sad about having to be elsewhere. This place was chaos.

“We have a sister hotel that is normally extended stay. Let me see what I can do.” She typed away on the keyboard and next thing I knew we were a half a mile down the road walking into our two bedroom, basically apartment, complete with kitchen and shared living room and by some miracle at the same price. I was not complaining. Not. At. All.

“What time do you need to be at the game tomorrow?” Neil asked.

“Not until eight.” Only a kid could put not until in front of a time that early in the morning on a Saturday.

“That means we have time for all the things you had planned.” He took out his phone. “Let me find us a pizza.”

The evening was perfect. No screaming ill behaved parents… or their kids for that matter, delicious pizza, a movie, and just the three of us having fun together. Toby didn’t even complain when I had him go to bed and after the long day he had, he fell asleep almost instantly.

“I wonder what we could do now?” Neil stepped in close. “If only I could think of something.” He pulled in his lower lip with his teeth and all I could think about was kissing him… so I did.

The kiss didn’t stay sweet long and with each move of our lips it deepened, the passion between us boiling over until we found ourselves racing to thesecond bedroom where we alleviated each other of our clothes and made love, both of us falling asleep in each other's arms.

It was the perfect end to a fabulous night.

Only it wasn’t the end of our night. Neil’s phone rang, yanking me out of my sleep at nearly three in the morning. He sprung from the bed, fishing through our discarded clothing for his phone and when he answered it, all color drained from his face.

89

SOMETHING UNEXPECTED

Neil

My body slumped onto the floor. There were distinct sounds in the room and outside that I would remember for the rest of my life. Crickets chirping in the bushes, a dog barking in the distance, Martin turning over in bed, and the voice at the other end of the phone giving me news that would change my life forever.

“Can you repeat that?”

“Adrian Williamson, your former high school classmate, died in a car accident yesterday.”

Gods, no. Daire and I had been out to dinner with Adrian many times, including when he was pregnant with his son. He’d so wanted to be a father and after a one-night stand with an alpha who was in town for a conference, he got pregnant. The alpha, who it turned out was mated, didn’t want anything to do with the child and so Adrian became a single dad.

He’d brought the baby to Sunshine Manor about six weeks ago but what with the lead up to the trial and Daire’s new motel project, neither of us had seen Adrian since then. The baby, Charlie, must be about six months old.

“I’m… I’m so sorry to hear that,” I managed to get out between sobs. “He was a good friend to me growing up.” Adrian was human but unlike me, Daire had never let him in on the secret that shifters existed.

“Neil,” Martin whispered. “Tell me what’s happened. Is it someone at the manor?”

I shook my head. “Thank you for letting me know,” I said into the phone. In the back of my mind, I wondered why a lawyer was calling me about Adrian’sdeath, but having no close family of his own other than Charlie, the baby, perhaps he’d left instructions for the guy to inform his friends.

“Charlie!” I shrieked. “Was he in the car?” Oh no, not the baby too. But if Adrian had been killed in the accident… I couldn’t go on, my thoughts were so bleak and sad.

“Neil, tell me what’s happening?” Martin leaned over the side of the bed. I held his hand as I waited for the lawyer to give me even worse news.

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